Zoology and wildlife conservation

The earliest record of human activity in northern Europe

Article Abstract:

Flint artefacts from the Cromer Forest-bed Formation at Pakefield, Suffolk, UK, from an interglacial sequence yielding a diverse range of plant and animal fossils to find earliest the earliest human occupation of northwest Europe is reported. Event and lithostratigraphy, palaeomagnetism, amino acid geochronology and biostratigraphy indicate that the artefacts date to the early part of the Brunhes Chron and thus represent the earliest unequivocal for human presence.

Molecular trails from hitch-hiking snails

Article Abstract:

A molecular phylogenetic trail revealing the incredible transequatorial dispersal of the land snail Balea from Europe to the Azores and the Tristan da Cunha islands, and back again is illustrated. The analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequence data for subunit I of cytochrome oxidase for different Balea species indicate that Azorean and Tristan groups of Balea arose from a single ancestral species.

Late survival of Neanderthals at the southernmost extreme of Europe

Article Abstract:

A high-resolution record of human occupation from Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar, is presented that establish the survival of a population of Neanderthals to 28 kyr in the southernmost point of Europe. The results have shown that the Neanderthals survived in isolated refuges well after the arrival of modern humans in Europe.